Hail to the Dinosaurs!
Four quick notes, and then we'll talk
training.
1. We've shipped the John Grimek course --
if you reserved a copy, you'll be getting
it soon. Shoot me an email when it arrives!
2. The Dino Files is running late due to
all the work on the Grimek course -- but
it should be mailed on Fri or Monday.
3. Shoot me an email if you're interested
in a book or course on Dino-style diet and
nutrition. If enough of you are interested,
I'll do it!
4. Are you reading the Thought for the Day
at the end of each message? They're pretty
good! Look for them.
On the training front, I've been getting a
ton of feedback from readers who have had
great success with abbreviated training. In
many cases, they shocked themselves by how
fast they gained after they switched to
shorter workouts.
That's not surprising. In strength training,
less is more. You can get amazing results
with short, infrequent workouts.
Amazing results. And fast, results, too.
For the older trainees, abbreviated workouts
are a godsend. Older trainees are always short
on time, on energy and on recovery ability.
A 60 minute workout might bury an older
lifter -- but a 45 minute session (or a 30
minute session) might make him feel like
running and jumping and turning cartwheels
because he feels so darn good.
When I was 30 years old, I started using
abbreviated training, and in a couple of
years I gained 45 pounds of muscle and
increased my strength enormously. Back then,
I usually trained three times per week for
about 50 or 60 minutes per session. I
would hit two major exercises in each
workout, and train each exercise once
per week.
Today, I still train three times per week,
for the most part, but sometimes I hit two
workouts. I'm on the fence about whether
two is actually better than three now that
I'm 55. It may be best if I hit three
sessions one week and two the next.
I'll have to keep an eye on my training
journal and see what seems to work best.
My workouts are a bit shorter than before.
I usually train for 35 to 45 minutes. If
I train for anything close to an hour,
it's a long session.
I do more warm-ups than before. I start
with a full-body warm-up (which I didn't
do when I was younger), and I also begin
each primary exercise with very light
weights (like the empty bar) and work
up from there.
Remember, I do Olympic lifting now, and
I need to be as loose as possible for
snatches and clean and jerks. So that
means I do lots of progressively
heavier warm-up sets.
The other change in my training is that
I usually do ONE primary exercise in each
workout. For example, I might do power
snatches on Tuesday, the clean and push
press or the clean and jerk on Thursday
and front squats on Sunday. That seems
to be about the right amount of work in
each session. It let's me have fun and
work up to a challenging weight, but
still be able to fully recover in time
for the next workout.
You can see what I'm talking about in my
DVD, GOING STRONG AT 54, which we shot on
my birthday. My b'day present to the Dino
Nation was a 4 1/2 photo shoot that
included demos of something like 20
different exercises, followed by two
complete workouts back to back -- and
yes, I was tired when it was over:
http://brookskubik.com/goingstrong.html
I guess you could say that I did abbreviated
training in my 30's and 40's -- and now,
in my 50's, I'm doing ultra-abbreviated
training.
You also could say that I'm having as much
fun as ever, and that I plan to keep doing
this for a long, long time. And being a
Dinosaur, you probably feel the very same
way!
Anyhow, I'd love some workout reports --
some feedback on the Grimek course -- and
I'd love to know if you'd like to see a
book or course on diet and nutrition for
Dinosaurs! Let me know!
As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a
good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. You can learn more about abbreviated
strength training in all of my books and
courses, including Dinosaur Training,
Dinosaur Bodyweight Training, Gray Hair
and Black Iron, Chalk and Sweat, and
Strength, Muscle and Power:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 2. Here's the link for the John Grimek
course:
http://brookskubik.com/johngrimek_course.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Stop over-analyzing
things and train. Training is the best teacher in
the world." -- Brooks Kubik
